As a method for evaluating a gear shift shock of an automatic transmission, there is a method of attaching an acceleration sensor for detecting a front-rear acceleration and evaluating a magnitude of the gear shift shock based on the detected front-rear acceleration during gear shift (JP2004-44715A).
However, there is a gap between the detected front-rear acceleration and a gear shift shock felt by an evaluator (passenger). The gear shift shock cannot be accurately evaluated only from the detected front-rear acceleration.
Thus, in actual evaluation, a method in which the evaluator gives a grade in accordance with a degree of the shock felt at the time of the gear shift and further, the detected front-rear acceleration is used as a reference value for deter mining whether or not this grade is adequate is adopted.